This site exists for one purpose only: to help dispel the ugly and absolutely untrue myth that poetry is boring. Granted, a lot of poetry is boring, but you won't find it here. At Your Daily Poem, you'll find poetry that is touching, funny, provocative, inspiring, uplifting, and surprising. It may punch you in the gut, it may bring tears to your eyes, it may make you laugh out loud, but it most assuredly will not bore you!

Poetry on YDP—by poets living and long dead, famous to completely unknown--is specially selected for accessibility and appeal. Thanks so much for visiting—and remember: a poem a day keeps the doldrums away!

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882) was an American poet, essayist, and philosopher. Born and raised in Boston, he attended both Harvard University and Harvard School of Divinity, but was not a particularly impressive student. "Waldo,” as he preferred to be called, worked as a schoolteacher and Unitarian minister before devoting himself to a career in writing and public speaking. A close friend of Henry David Thoreau, Nathanial Hawthorne, the Alcott family, and Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew, Prince Achille Murat, he was also instrumental in establishing Walt Whitman's reputation as a poet. A strong abolitionist and passionate Transcendentalist, Emerson was one of the foremost personalities of the 19th century; his philosphies and writings had tremendous impact on America's political, religious, and literary arenas. Unfortunately, he knew much sorrow in his life, including the death of his father when he was only eight, the death of his first wife after only a year and a half of marriage, the death of both his young sons, and a fire at his home in Concord, Massachusetts. (Friends took up a collection to pay for the restoration, Emerson lived in it until his death, and the house is now a National Historic Landmark.)